Associations
of Parental and Grandparental Major Depressive Disorders
with Preschoolers' Behavioral and Emotional Problems

The Oregon Adolescent Depression Project (OADP) initially
assessed students from nine Oregon high schools on three
occasions from 1987 to 1999. The participants who subsequently
had children were assessed with the Structured Clinical
Interview for DSM-IV Disorders (SCID) and data were collected
on the parents and relatives of the participants. When
the children of the participants were 2 years old, both
the mothers and fathers rated their children on the CBCL/2-3.
The 2-year-olds' Internalizing and Externalizing scores
were computed by averaging ratings from both parents.
Multiple regression analyses showed that both grandparental
and parental depression significantly predicted elevated
CBCL/2-3 scores for Internalizing problems but not Externalizing
problems. Mean Internalizing scores were significantly
higher for 2-year-olds whose family members had major
depression than for those whose family members did not
have major depression. Moreover, the Internalizing scores
were similar for 2-year-olds whose parents or grandparental
generations or both had major depression. The authors
concluded that their results argue for including the grandchildren
of depressed grandparents in studies of children at risk
for depression, regardless of whether the children's parents
are diagnosed as depressed.